Just got in from the parade for the WestIndian cricket team. We won The Gay Cricket World Cup. This is the first Cricket World Cup that wehave won in over 30 years. The West Indians are champions again.
That does not mean that all the guys are gay, t is just that this is the most prestigious tournament there is now. Not like the old days. Even the football has gone through serious changes. America won The Gay Football World Cup two years ago. They demolished the “Boys from Brazil”.
On the way back from the parade, the buswas delayed for a while because a small crowd of indigenous Bajans were protesting against thenew national flag. This flag was created to coincide with the renaming of the island. The lawmakers have successfully changed the island’s name from Barbados to Tringuydos and hence the new flag. A big ceremony will take place in a couple weeks.
The majority of indigenous Bajans are againstthe name change and the new flag but only a feware out there showing their dissent. I guess the rest are just plain cowards. I am in my 80s and barely able to walk due to arthritis, otherwise I would be demonstrating too.
But the Bajans waited too long to react. As faras I am concerned, the ‘horse done bolt and gone’.
Years ago, the Trinidadians were ‘owning, owning, owning’ and the Bajans knew, but they did not get involved in the business end of things. And now,all gone.
Last week the Prime Minister, Ram Singh,said that from next year the Tringuydos Carnivalwill be moved to a different date so that all the Trinidadians and Guyanese acts that will be performing at Caribana in Canada will be able to come and perform here.
That same carnival used to be called Crop Overup to about two years ago. At that time, the Minister of Culture, Mr Persaud, said that since we don’t reap sugar cane anymore, there is no need to call itCrop Over.
Things really hard for the indigenous Bajan. It really hurts when you think of how things were “back in the day”. In those earlier days, we were running this country. We controlled the Parliament and all the ministries and now we are like third-class citizens in we own country. If we did only tek care of business.
And to think how we used to boast about our education. How we had one of the highest literacy rates in the whole world. We used to brag about Barbados and its beauty. We were proud Bajans.We even had songs about how proud we were of this sweet country.
But pride and literacy alone can’t make you survive. What was lacking was hard work and production. We also suffered from selfishness. Wedid not look at the big picture, which was preserving Barbados. We did not even think of our childrenand grandchildren – just about ourselves – hencethe demise.
I remember when we had our first woman prime minister. She did a good job. She actually had two terms. But because the Commissioner of Police wasa woman and the Chief of Staff of the Defence Force was a woman, people were annoyed. Even the head of the Scouts was a woman. Men and women somehow did not like it and a lot of quarrelling and fretting took over the call-in programmes.
That is when the “Big Move” started to take root. The Trini-Bajans and the Guyanese-Bajans joined with the Indians and formed a coalition party. They had the backing of the businesspeople, who were all Trinidadians, Guyanese and Jamaicans. They ploughed what Bajans used to call “real money” into the Election.
The coalition party won the Election, thereby removing the only female Prime Minister we ever had. She could not fight against that money. The crime in Trinidad had run all the “rich boys” here, so along with all the Trini businesses here already, it was money galore.
And to think that even the indigenous Bajans sell out just for the money. Well, well, well. It does hurt muh heart.
Since then so many things changed. All our food comes from Trinidad. Almost all the restaurants are owned by Trinidadians, Guyanese and Jamaicans. Even the indigenous Bajans seem to prefer those dishes over their own.
The Barbadian dollar, which was devalued in 2014, is regaining some strength but I guess that too will soon be changed to the Tringuydos dollar.
Anyhow, it is late and getting later, and I am going to sleep as all the indigenous Bajans apparently did. I am not looking forward to tomorrow.
• Mac Fingall is an entertainer and retired secondary school teacher. Email scouds@yahoo.com.
